eirenical | Cool People

Thank you for creating for me! :D I hope this letter can give you some inspiration on which way to go <3

I'm open to treats of all mediums!

General DNWs & Likes

General DNWs: breaking up requested ships, genderswap, anything related to cannibalism, body horror*, graphic gore*, zombies/undead, hanahaki, sickfic, permanent character death for requested characters, mundane AUs, setting change AUs, de-aging, incest, breastfeeding of anyone 1+ years old;

nsfw DNWs: underage-under 15, watersports, scat, vore, sounding, enemas, fisting, ageplay, crossdressing, injured sex, anal prolapse, oral knotting, body modification (bitching excepted)

*re: body horror & gore, I'm fine with descriptions of the victim's injuries (missing organs, ripped open ribcage, torn throat, etc.) as long as this is framed in a somewhat clinical/professional setting (e.g. coroner's report, characters' investigative dialogue)

General Likes:

what ifs/canon divergences, alternate identity reveal, time travel (fix-it), canon aus where the canon setting remains,
fluff, domesticity, banter, found family, family dynamics, friendship, developing & established relationships, intimacy,
UST, misunderstandings, miscommunication, character conflict, conflict-rich dialogue, (emotional) hurt/comfort, secret identity, secrets and the slow reveals thereof,
fealty & loyalty, devotion, protectiveness, protective possessiveness, mutual possessiveness, (public) claiming of some sort (jewelry, bitemarks, verbal, etc.)
characters being competent at their jobs, Battle Couple, teamwork, nonverbal strategy communication,
casefic, canon-style plots, mystery, action/adventure,
outsider PoV, epistolary, multimedia and experimental formats (fictional socmed, letters, snippets from history books, text books, mission reports, etc.) that fit the canon setting
The intimacy of your lover being able to kill you but choosing not to: knife to the throat (for shaving or during a fight enemies-to-lovers style), human!partner being vulnerable in monster!partner's grasp, strong person who trusts no one being vulnerable with their partner, etc.

NSFW Likes: D/s, bondage, begging, enthusiastic consent, undernegotiated kink, kink negotiations, dirty talk, praise kink, happy sex/banter during sex, clothed sex, foreplay, aftercare, plot-relevant sex

Art Likes:

monochrome, b&w with pop of colour, high contrast with few colours, (but really, any art style is welcome!)
jewelry & flowers, swords! (and other character-appropriate weapons), fancy clothes,
character poses that tell a story/embody the dynamic between characters, small intimacies (hand to cheek! fingers brushing! eyes meeting! back-to-back! head on shoulder!), height difference where appropriate (or otherwise through environment or kneeling)
And I'm really, really into the styles of stained glass (so pretty! I love the mosaic colours and religious symbology of it), tarot cards (the levels of choosing a card meaning to fit the character, the pose, the details!), and tapestry (just, the historical vibes? Usually some sort of major event or conflict, depicting a story between characters? *_*)

Generally, I'm happy with either leaning into the tropes as they are or subverting them in interesting ways!

Casefic Likes

Murder Mysteries: I like the investigating and mystery-solving, the back and forth between characters, the getting ideas and proposing theories, the banter that ensues and the way it highlights different characters' areas of expertise and insight
Police Procedurals: I like the general set-up/pacing of these, from the discovery of the victim, the autopsy bringing new leads, going to interview witnesses/suspects, the gathering of clues... I love the logic chain and the leaps of logic, the discovery of who did it and more importantly why
Undercover: I like characters pretending to be someone else, the way they choose to go about it (lean into traits they already have? play at a fantasy self they don't think they can attain? act like their favourite spy thriller character? laying it on too thick?), the heightened stakes of getting caught, the rush of getting away with it (or with being caught and then rescued by the other characters). And I *love* when two characters go undercover independently and then have to come up with excuses for their reaction to the other on the spot, the whole "what are you doing here" whisper-hiss conversation
Monster of the Week: I love love love mythology! I grew up on Greek mythology, with some sprinkles of Egyptian and Norse. In recent years I got really into Chinese folklore, too, and I'm always open to being introduced to new creatures/legends! I love the mystery of the characters having to figure out which creature it is based on what's happening, the gathering of clues and what to do, the reveal of the monster, and how they deal with it
Kidnapping: love when the kidnapped character trusts 110% that their team/friends will rescue them and is proven right. Or they free themselves before they're rescued because the kidnappers underestimated them! It's also great when two characters are kidnapped (either together or seperately) and continuously bicker while the kidnapper's patience is waning xD
Stakeouts: I especially love boredom and random chatter leading the two characters on stakeout to an emotionally vulnerable moment and/or confession, which then gets interrupted before the resolution by the suspects doing Their Thing and has to be postponed for later. Like the two characters work through whatever keeps their relationship from being better, misunderstandings, presumptions about the other, etc. and by the end of the stakeout have found a new understanding/level of friendship/insight/intimacy
Mind Games
Wrongfully Accused/Frame Job
Competence: every/multiple characters getting a moment to shine/be in their element/be badass

[Letter in progress! More to be added soon]

pilferingapples

I may as well start crossposting some things as Tumblr is Once Again Doomed Some More , so...here goes!

I've finished Gormenghast! or at least the first couple novels, and the last one--Titus Alone-- has no interest for me whatsoever. What I've loved about these books is Gormenghast, the immense crumbling impossible structure and all its absurd ritual. I would have read another five novels about that weird, weird place; I don't want even one about Titus , who I've never found very interesting , going off to have his coming of age journey .

(A brief digression: one year in junior high our English class spent the *entire year* reading books about What It Means to Be A Man. Not to become an adult, not just coming of age: The Meaning of Manhood. We read like eight books on the topic and they were almost all mid-century takes, heavy on the "kill what you love" and women and animals dying to symbolically free the newly- arrived Capital M Man. I've done my time with that one, so any interest I might have had in the world outside Gormenghast was whittled away fast with every narrative reminder that Other People Dying Had Ended His Boyhood etc etc . I don't begrudge people those stories if they want 'em but I've had 'em, I've done my time and I'm Done.)

...man I really REALLY did not find Titus interesting, except for the Marbles Scene. But that's a ramble for another time.

Because overall I LOVED these two books; I fell in love with the ridculously Gothic expanse of Gormenghast at once , and the characters won me over without me really noticing it. In the first book they all felt like part of the place, which was excellent; in the second it felt like they were more having their human-ness brought out in contrast to the surroundings, which was less fun in some ways , but I really loved everyone by that point so hanging out with them was still excellent. It says something about both the nature of the place and the characters that I was chill hangin' out and just letting things unfold at their own pace for a character like Steerpike; it was just impossible to feel like anything was urgent. 10/10 loved it all.

I wish I could spend more time with those characters and that world! I would have spent chapters reading about any tiny detail of the Rituals or the building or even the Bright Carvers (and in fact I'm profoundly disappointed we didn't learn more about "the Thing" from the POV of anyone but Titus. Ugh, Titus.) That being said, it's very funny to me that Peake himself doesn't seem to have any interest in the Tension of his plot; I lost track of how often he established a dramatic change of events that demanded action Right Now and then just skipped several chapters ahead to when it had Already Happened. Iconic. Brilliant. I don't need to know, Merv, you're so right. Tell me more about the hallway. TELL ME MORE, I NEED TO KNOW.

Highly recommended for: anyone who wants to read about a Weird Old Building and also some Weird People of various ages :D

Current Location: tragically not a crumbling edifice of ancient standing

nnozomi

A bit of Chinese wordplay that I thought was funny: when two people in white shirts stand on either side of one in a black shirt, someone describes them as 利奥利 (lì-ào-lì). Guess why (or see the answer here). Answer: Oreo cookies in Chinese are 奥利奥, which is just transliteration; but it makes perfect sense that if the black-white-black Oreo coloring is ào-lì-ào, then white-black-white would be lì-ào-lì… .
Also a word/character that I enjoy for its just-exactly-like-that-ness: 汆, which means to parboil, and which is made up of 入, put into, and 水, water. (Also relieved that water is water in Chinese, unlike Japanese, in which water 水 and hot water (お)湯 are separate words; Y and I had a debate over the Japanese expression in which you “boil hot water,” which doesn’t make much sense to me; a case in which the object is the result of the verb?).

Trying to transcribe something in Chinese (an interview about my favorite singer) which is unsubtitled, and finding it extremely difficult, although the speaker doesn’t go too fast and pronounces things quite clearly, apart from the sh/zh = r thing which all Chinese men seem to do. Even so there are a lot of gaps and places where I can hear the word but can’t figure out what character it might be. I did notice that sometimes a line which absolutely stumps me on one day seems quite clear when I come back to it the next; not sure why, but it’s interesting.

I’ve been enjoying everyone’s 100-formative-books lists, and finally gave in and made my own here. Featuring a lot of the same photograph (does it count as a stock photo if it’s one I took?) in place of a book cover image, because I couldn’t bring myself to search for images of ALL the Japanese books, quite a few of the English ones, etc. Why don’t they just give you a “no image” option? Also, I feel like I’ve left a lot out; I don’t remember all the books that were childhood favorites! I mean, if the titles or authors come up I naturally remember the books themselves, but I can’t list them all off out of thin air, and my physical books have undergone many shifts due to changing houses, countries, etc. etc. Where is there a giant master list of “all the books someone of my generation would have been likely to read growing up, Anglophone edition”…

One of my original-thing characters is having a professional breakthrough of sorts and I can’t tell whether I’ve managed to be as smart as she is or completely dumb (whether it’s going to make any sense to the [hypothetical] readers or seem like it was obvious five chapters ago). I should probably be relieved that I’ve managed to come up with something for her to be inspired about; it took me literally over a year to solve another character’s similar problem for him, jeez. I’m just about halfway through the whole thing now and things are starting to happen, but I still have SO MANY question marks in my outline and I’m making such very slow progress, oh dear.

Music: an older recording of Chen Ming and Jiang Dunhao singing 让, because I continue to be obsessed, and also I like this song; also last week’s radio opera was Figaro, so here’s Jessye Norman singing Dove sono, just because it’s one of the most beautiful things in the universe.

Photos: lots more sakura and cats, also one of the prettiest weeds I’ve seen.